The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 118

"Stop bossing me around," Lavinia muttered, marching out of the parlor without looking back.

As they walked past a row of noisy outdoor food stalls, someone shouted her name. "Lavinia! Over here!"

She turned and saw Lily sitting at a plastic patio table, waving aggressively. Two men were sitting with her.

Lavinia threw a quick glance over her shoulder at Charley, pressed her lips together, and walked over to take a seat next to her coworker.

"This is Lavinia, she just started at the store today," Lily said, gesturing to the man across from them. "This is my boyfriend, Chase. And his buddy, Hughie. They're businessmen."

The two men openly checked Lavinia out. Chase flashed a sleazy grin. "Hey beautiful, want a drink?"

Lavinia gave a tight nod.

Chase filled a plastic cup to the brim with cheap draft beer. Lavinia took a sip. It was brutally bitter. She wasn't a big drinker, but right now, she welcomed the burn. It was a lot easier to swallow than the mess in her head.

A heavily tattooed guy from the next table swaggered over, leaning heavily on their table and invading Lavinia's personal space. "Hey gorgeous, my buddy over there wants to buy you a drink."

Lavinia didn't even look up. "Not interested."

The guy leaned closer, his eyes raking over her exposed legs. "Come on, don't be a bitch. Just say hi."

"I said no."

The guy reached out to grab her arm. Chase and Hughie immediately stood up, shoving the guy back. Voices escalated, chairs scraped against the concrete, and things were seconds away from turning violent.

Just as the tattooed guy reared back to swing, a hand shot out from the shadows, clamping down on his wrist like a steel vice.

"Back off," Charley said, his voice dangerously low.

The entire neighboring table jumped up, knocking over bottles as they lunged forward.

Lily had clearly survived her fair share of bar brawls. Moving with practiced speed, she grabbed Lavinia by the shirt and dragged her into a nearby alley to hide. When Lavinia peeked back out, Chase and Hughie were already sprinting down the street in the opposite direction.

Charley was fighting three guys at once.

It was over in under a minute. All three men were groaning on the pavement. Charley casually shook out his bruised knuckles, his expression completely bored.

Lily yanked Lavinia out of the alley. "Run! The cops will be here in a second!"

The three of them scrambled back to the apartment building. Lily ran to her unit to grab a first-aid kit. Charley sat heavily on Lavinia's cheap sofa while she knelt in front of him, dabbing rubbing alcohol onto his scraped knuckles. When the alcohol hit the raw skin, his fingers twitched, but he didn't make a sound.

A puddle on the street perfectly reflected her image. Her head was turned, staring blankly off-camera, looking incredibly detached and unreachable.

Lavinia had never seen herself look like that. It didn't look like her, yet it undeniably was.

It reminded her of the photo he took of her in front of the stupa in India. She still had that saved on her phone. She had never deleted it.

She looked up at him. "You have a weird habit of taking pictures of people right when they're falling apart."

Just then, her phone buzzed in her pocket. He had texted her the picture.

"You're criminally gorgeous," he said softly. "You should be the one breaking men's hearts."

He stood up, opened the door, and walked out.

The door clicked shut.

Lavinia sat alone on the worn sofa, gripping her phone. The screen was still glowing. She stared at the photo for a long, long time.

Outside, a vendor was rolling down a heavy metal security gate. The loud, metallic rattle echoed through the alley, and then everything faded back into silence.